October 3 has become the Germans’ national day after re-unification in 1990 and after the wall had come down in 1989. It is one of the most important days for the German people to commemorate the events that led to the re-unification, when for 40 years the members of the Parliament stood up every morning to pray for re-unification and when then thousands of people stormed the borders and climbed the fences in the countries along its borders. Whoever had tried in the past to slip through the Iron Curtain to the other side was shot dead and whoever came through had to be aware that remaining families were put into prison.

We have all been watching the heart touching scenes at the check points when finally they were opened to release the people into the West and we were all dancing of joy in our living rooms with the people dancing on top of the wall in Berlin celebrating and welcoming their brothers and sisters from the other side.

In 2009 Greek and Turkish speaking artists had – by their art work – taken part in the 20years of the Fall of the Berlin wall; they had met for a workshop at the Goethe Centre in Nicosia buffer zone to paint or write poems on Styropore pieces representing the stones of the wall. The stones were taken to Berlin for the day of celebration and the artists were all invited to be present, artists from a country that is still one of the few divided countries left on our globe.

On the 3rd of October 2012, the Day of German Unity was celebrated in the garden of the Status Café opposite the Goethe Institut. The German Ambassadress Dr. Gabriela Guillil welcomed the President Dimitris Christofias, the Diplomatic Corps and the German citizens living on the North and the South sides of the divided island. It was a wonderful party with at least 600 guests who were gathering under a full moon and finally moderate temperatures. We even found our mascot for the evening that was a small German boy in leather pants offering the guests true Bavarian Pretzels his mother had baked in her shop in the South. I ate three of them. But there were many more typical German delicacies offered of which the guests continued to taste unceasingly. Strolling among the guests I observed animated discussions going on between diplomats and university people, I encountered the old presidential sparring partners Dimitris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat engaged in a lively discussion about …perhaps .....possibilities in the near future?I wonder.